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Telecom news articles. ........Date: 4/1/2003

Telefonica Moviles Mexico becomes the second largest operator in the country


Source:http://www.emc-database.com, Source date:


In July 2001, Telefonica Moviles acquired from Telefonica S.A. four wireless operators in Mexico. These operators were acquired from Motorola in June 2001 ( link to emc database). Telefonica S.A. acquired the operators in for an aggregate of USD 1,835.5 million in shares of Telefonica, S.A. and USD 10.5 million in cash and transferred them to Telefonica Moviles in exchange for approximately USD 203 million of its ordinary shares.

At December 31, 2001, these operating companies had an aggregate of 1,212,000 wireless subscribers (EMC World Cellular Database). The operating companies in Mexico, which operate primarily in the north of the country, are Baja Celular Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. (Bajacel); Movitel del Noroeste S.A. de C.V.(Movitel); Telefonica Celular del Norte, S.A. de C.V., (Norcel) and Celular de Telefonica, S.A. de C.V., (Cedetel). At December 2001 Telefonica Moviles interests in those wireless operations consisted of:

Region
Company
Ownership interest %
1
Bajacel
100
2
Movitel
90
3
Norcel
100
4
Cedetel
100
Source: EMC Research

Telefonica Moviles begun consolidating its Mexican operators in its combined financial statement as of 1 July 2001. In each of the regions Telefonica Moviles' wireless operators hold licences of 20MHz of spectrum on the 800 MHz band. The licences expire in 2010.

Telefonica Moviles' wireless operators offer both analogue and digital networks. Their digital networks are based upon the CDMA standard. At December 2001, Telefonica Moviles digital network in Mexico consist of 11 switching centre and 263 network sites and their analogue network sites consisted of 408 network sites, giving coverage to approximately 86% of the population.

The legal name is Telefonica Moviles Mexico S.A. de C.V. and the brand name is Telefonica MoviStar